Most valuable players in the India-Pakistan series

Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji's MVPI formula shows Pakistan’s bowlers and opening batsmen won the recently-concluded series for them.

Even though the record books show a 2-1 series win for Pakistan, there is little doubt that Misbah-ul- Haq’s team dominated the recently-concluded ODI series.

This becomes evident when we look at the most valuable player index (MVPI) table. The first four places have all been bagged by Pakistani cricketers. India’s most valuable performer, M S Dhoni is placed fifth.

The MVPI formula picks out batsmen who score a lot of runs at a high strike rate and bowlers who take a lot of wickets at a low economy rate, and expresses a player’s overall batting + bowling + fielding performance in terms of a ‘run equivalent’.

Mohammed Hafeez, for example, has a MVPI of 237; this means that Hafeez scored 237 ‘runs’ in the series if his batting + bowling + fielding performance is expressed only in terms of ‘runs’ (the break-up is 106 for batting, 126 for bowling and 5 for fielding).

Table 1 lists the MVPI of all the players who played in the ODI series. The table clearly shows that Pakistan’s bowlers and opening batsmen won the series for them.

Runs (scored) | Top score | Strike rate | W: Wickets taken | Eco: Economy rate | | M: Matches played | MVPI: Most valuable player index = sum of batting, bowling and fielding points |*Run outs are counted as 1 (wicket) for a direct hit, and 0.5 (wicket) if the fielder is an equal participant in a run out dismissal.

The next table shows India’s most valuable players in the 8 matches played so far in India’s 2012-13 season. Virat Kohli loses his top place after his shockingly poor performance against Pakistan. Also it is clear that India sorely missed the injured Irfan Pathan. Finally note that Sehwag’s performance isn’t as bad as the selectors seem to think.

Table 2: India’s most valuable players in the 2012-13 ODI season (8 matches so far)